Tucson, Ariz. – The unofficial start to the 2018-19 Arizona Basketball season began on Sunday afternoon with the First Watch Red-Blue Game at McKale Center. 

The afternoon opened with sophomore Brandon Randolph defending his slam dunk title and becoming the first Wildcat to post back-to-back wins in the dunk contest.

Following the dunk contest, the Cats took the court for their annual preseason intrasquad scrimmage. The Red team came out on top, pulling out a 39-33 win.

"The Red-Blue game is always about a number of things, one of which has nothing to do with our own team and I think it's an opportunity for us as a program to thank the best fans in college basketball," head coach Sean Miller said. "It's not just because they show up 14,500 every game regardless of who we play, but it's their loyalty and sticking with us."
 
Sophomore Ira Lee paced the Red team and led all players in scoring with 12 points. He also added three rebounds. Ryan Luther also had a strong game for the Red squad, finishing with 10 points and four rebounds. He hit two 3-pointers and played more than 20 minutes. Freshman Devoinaire Dourtive made his debut for the Cats and was stellar for the Red team, finishing with nine points and three assists.  
 
For the Blue team, redshirt Junior Chase Jeter had a game-high 14 rebounds and added nine points in 21 minutes of play. Jeter had 14 of the Blue team's 21 boards. Jeter was an efficient 4 for 7 (.571) from the field. Randolph finished with eight points and a pair of rebounds in 18 minutes played. Emmanuel Akot also had eight points for the Blue team, playing nearly the whole game. 
 
The Sunday afternoon scrimmage saw former All-Americans Deandre Ayton and Jerryd Bayless inducted into Arizona's Ring of Honor. Ayton was the first overall selection of the 2018 NBA Draft to the Phoenix Suns. Arizona's big man was a consensus First-Team All-America as selected by USBWA, AP, NABC and Sporting News. The 2018 Pac-12 Freshman of the year will kick off his NBA career on Wednesday, October 17th when the Suns host the Dallas Mavericks.

Bayless, a member of the 2007-08 team was selected 11th overall by the Indiana Pacers (rights traded to Portland on draft day) in 2008. The Phoenix  native was Arizona's first All-American since the 2004-05 season (Salim Stoudamire and Channing Frye), and the first freshman All-American since the 1999-2000 season (Jason Gardner).
 
 The Cats will play a pair of exhibition games at home before the start of the season with the first against Western New Mexico on Oct. 30th at 7 p.m.